and the Sinfulness of Man
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Going on in the heart of every believer, from the second birth until death.
“When you get saved, it is like putting a refined, civilized man in the same cage with
a savage barbarian or a wild beast.”
I believe that I was conceived in sin, and brought forth in iniquity, and that ever
since, I have been continually conceiving mischief, and bringing forth vanity.
THIS article of my faith I must of necessity believe, whether I will or no; for if I
could not believe it to be true, I should therefore have the more cause to believe it
to be so; because, unless my heart was naturally very sinful and corrupt, it would be
impossible for me not to believe that which I have so much cause continually to
bewail; or if I do not bewail it, I have still the more cause to believe it: and
therefore am so much the more persuaded of it, by how much the less I find myself
affected with it. For certainly I must be a hard-hearted wretch indeed, steeped in sin
and fraught with corruption to the highest, if I know myself so oft to have incensed
the wrath of the Most High God against me as I do, and yet not be sensible of my
natural corruption, nor acknowledge myself to be by nature a child of wrath, as well
as others. For I verily believe, that the want of such a due sense of myself argues as
much original corruption as murder and whoredom do actual pollution. And I shall
ever suspect those to be the most under the power of that corruption, that labour
most, by arguments, to divest it of its power. And therefore, for my own part, I am
resolved, by the grace of God, never to go about to confute that by willful arguments,
which I find so true by woeful experience. If there be not a bitter root in my heart,
whence proceeds so much bitter fruit in my life and conversation? Alas! I can neither
set my head nor heart about anything, but I still show myself to be the sinful
offspring of sinful parents, by being the sinful parent of a sinful offspring: nay, I
do not only betray the inbred venom of my heart, by poisoning my common actions, but
even my most religious performances also, with sin. I cannot pray but I sin, I cannot
hear or preach a sermon but I sin, I cannot give an alms or receive the Scripture but
I sin; nay, I cannot so much as confess my sins, but my very confessions are still
aggravations of them; my repentance needs to be repented of, my tears want washing,
and the very washing of my tears needs still to be washed over again with the blood of
my Redeemer.
Thus, not only the worst of my sins, but even the best of my duties, speak me a child
of Adam. Insomuch, that whensoever I reflect upon my past actions, methinks I cannot
but look upon my whole life, from the time of my conception to this very moment, to be
but as one continued act of sin. And whence can such a continued stream of corruption
flow, but from the corrupt cistern of my heart? And whence can that corrupt cistern of
my heart be filled, but from the corrupt fountain of my nature? Cease, therefore, O my
soul, to gainsay the power of original sin within thee, and labour now to subdue it
under thee. But why do I speak of my subduing this sin myself? Surely this would be
both an argument of it, and an addition to it. It is to Thee, O my God, Who art both
the Searcher and Cleanser of hearts that I desire to make my moan. It is to Thee I cry
out in the bitterness of my soul, "O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from
the body of this death?" Rom. 7:24. Who shall? Oh, who can do it but Thyself? Arise
Thou, therefore, O my God, and shew Thy self as infinitely merciful in the pardoning,
as Thou art infinitely powerful in the purging away, my sins. The Theological Works of
William Beveridge, Vol. VIII, pp. 166-167 Oxford, 1846. Here we see the battle of two
natures going on.
Within every Christian there are two natures: One is the old Adamic nature with which
he is born, and the other is a new nature created by the Holy Spirit at the New Birth.
Paul wrote about that old nature. “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,)
dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which
is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil I which would
not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that
dwelleth in me.” Rom. 7:18-21
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these
are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”
Gal. 5:17
This is the conflict between the old nature and the new. Two natures is proof that a
person is saved, for only a man who has been born twice has two natures. So then sin
is innate in all of mankind, all mankind is instinctively evil. “The heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked…” Jeremiah 17:9
"Ever since through sin Adam and Eve departed from Eden, sinful men and women have sought a way back to God. It is a quest perennially upspringing in the human heart. In every land, no matter what the kind or quality of worship, there is in human hearts an aching void that hungers for God. In pagan lands this quest for God is expressed in idol worship, and through varying methods, in varying degrees, wandering, sinning men and women sense a constant need for something outside of themselves, and that ultimate Something is God." B. H. Carroll
"There has been only one plan to God and His salvation. There is only one plan now. All of the ceremonials of ancient Israel pointed to Christ. From the prophecy voiced by our Father above to the first sinning pair, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head,” on through the entire canon of Scripture, there coursed the crimson thread denoting the blood of our Redeemer. Old Testament saints looked forward to the coming Messiah, who was to be a suffering Savior. Christians contemporaneous with Jesus himself, while only vaguely realizing the lofty meaning of His life and death." Taken from the book "Way Of The Cross" by J. W. Crowder, A.B., D.D.
In the Bible, every dispensation ends in apostasy. God creates “the heaven and the earth”(Gen. 1:1) and anoints one cherub and sets him over the throne of God (Ezek. 28:14), and Lucifer rebels and is thrown out of heaven with his fallen angels, the third heaven, laying waste to the original creation (Isa. 14:12-14; Gen. 1:2). The Lord starts over and creates man and puts him in a beautiful garden with a beautiful wife, and Adam and Eve fall and gets thrown out of the garden.
The dispensation of “Innocence” ends in thorns, sweat, pain in child-bearing, and bloodshed. God puts man under the dispensation of “Conscience”, and men get so wicked “even the thoughts and imaginations of his heart are only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5) that the Lord has to drown them out in the Flood. Noah and his sons leave the ark and begin the dispensation of “Human Government”, and you can read how that ends up in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel. God calls one man, Abram out of Ur of the Chaldea’s and puts him under the dispensation of “Promise” with imputed righteousness by grace through faith, and his family winds up in Egypt as slave laborers. God calls His people out of Egypt and gives them His law, the dispensation of “Law” and they fall into idolatry over and over again until God sends in Nebuchadnezzar to wipe them out and carry them off into captivity. Seventy years later, He brings them back to the land and has them rebuild the Temple. He protects them from genocide by Esther and gives them two good leaders (Ezra and Nehemiah). What do they do? They intermarry with the heathen and count the service of God as a burden. So God stops speaking to them for four hundred years. At the end of that time, He sends them His Son to redeem them, and they crucify Him. The Lord gives those Jews a second chance in the book of Acts, and they reject Christ over and over until the Gospel goes to the Gentiles and God stops dealing with the Jews as a nation. Then begins the dispensation of “Grace.” Also known as the Church Age, the Age of Grace, and the Pearl of Great Price that is hidden in the field. Do you see the path humanity has taken, yet? It’s not like evolution at all, where things get better and better as you go along. The Lord sends the Gospel to the Gentiles, and the Church Age ends up in the Laodicean church period where Christ is ready to spew that church out of His mouth. Even in the “Millennial” dispensation the 1000 year Millennium ends in apostasy. The Devil is released from the Bottomless Pit and deceives the nations. They surround Jerusalem to overthrow Jesus Christ, and God sends fire from heaven and burns them all alive. All ages end in apostasy. That is not religious speculation; it is a fact of history. It is truth that goes against man’s selfish design in his egotistical attempt to bring in the kingdom without Jesus Christ, a one world government ending in the total destruction of the world gentile empires.
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